Loved this article, you know there is a but coming. For those of us who are on a fixed income and do not drive anymore, Amazon has been a life saver. I can go on Amazon and get a sample of a book or and audio book and if I like it, I first try the local library and I am blessed to live in the Grand Rapids,MI area where there are 4 colleges or universities that I can also use. When money permits I do purchase that treasured book. Growing up my grandmother was an English teacher and I always got books for Christmas. In the summer when I would visit her, I had my very own library card. My dad was very smart and had books all over the house and was always reading. The bookshelf that on the back of the bed was full of Readers Digest Condensed books, I devoured them . They were a bit more than the samples that Amazon will provide. I guess it was the early version, enough to wet your appetite.
I live in a one bedroom apartment and do not have room for all the books and audio books on my Kindle , ( yes I was , one of those kids that hid a book inside my textbook, but only after my class work was done.) A couple of days a week, I would use my lunch money to buy books from the Scholastic’s Book form. Those were special days.
Okay, I admit I am a bookworm and I know I can not nor am I willing to quit at anytime. Looking forward to the next article at libraries. Whenever I have moved as an adult, and I have moved so many times, the first thing I do even before getting my driver’s license, I get my library card!
In our area the best bookstore is the largest independent bookstore in west Michigan and is called, Schiller Bookstore and Cafe.
A life in/with books is the good life--what a beautiful story this is! We did the same thing when we moved to Ohio: got our library card before anything else :-)
I got to visit Grand Rapids a year and a half ago, when I was recording the lectures to go with the Cultural Christians book, and my wonderful editor at Zondervan took me over to Baker Book House. She told me a really funny story about previously taking the famous theologian N. T. Wright there: he found one of his books in the used section of the store, so he took this used book off the shelf, wrote a short message in there for the reader and signed it, and shelved it back. What a nice surprise it must have been for whoever ended up buying it!
So cool. I know how special it is to be here where there great publishing companies. All those sources I used to sight in my papers, I now am here among them. Those address are very real places for me. I even had the opportunity to work downstairs at the corporate offices of Family Christian Stores with Zondervan Publishing upstairs. I do hope you make it back here again. Baker Book House has authors here all the time as does Schullers Bookstore. Maybe you could be a part of the Faith and Writing Festival that is held every two years at Calvin University and the January Series also at Calvin University.7
I've not been to the Barnes and Noble in Mansfield. I like the one at the Arlington Parks Mall. I also like the Half Price Bookstore on South Cooper Street in Arlington and Pantego Books. Pantego Books is a small store but packed with books, and book lover treats like stickers and socks and bookmarks. Half Price Books has a nice selection of journals, children's books, cookbooks, fiction, and vinyl records. I love Pantego Books best because it is a small family business. They are knowledgeable about books. They have author book signings. They have book group meetings.
I miss Lifeway Christian Bookstores, especially at Christmas time when the store looked festive, and they had a wonderful card selection.
A local bookstore opened in 2022 in our relatively small town. It's called Neighborly Books and my kids and I love visiting it. The atmosphere is lovely - it is in a historic building in our downtown area so the structure is visually appealing, and the owner usually plays big band/Sinatra music in the background. I love that there is a local place to shop for books.
'You can’t quite describe the sensation of having four walls of books all around you, and yet you know that you feel different when there, better somehow, more relaxed.'
Your book shop description at the end felt like you were reading my diary — you described the book shop I would love to own one day. Even down to poetry readings, history books, and the classics 😀 A good book shop can and should be a haven...
I really enjoyed this post! I have lived in many different places, from Uzbekistan to South Africa, and have visited bookstores around the globe. I'm a total sucker for a good used bookstore as well. Shortly after stores started reopening after the COVID lockdown, I was living in the D.C. Metro area at the time, and remember going into my local bookstore. I really wanted something uplifting and inspiring. I was very saddened to see they had no Christian books in their store. Not a single one. Everything was magic, zombies, true crime, etc. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything and I didn't return. There used to be a huge Lifeway store about 20 minutes from my house but it closed down. Germany was a reading culture and I remember loving how several people would be reading and not staring at their phones while traveling on the train/metro. In South Africa, there are lots of bookstores. In one little beach town, I passed by nearly five different ones within a three block walk. In these stores, and on the street markets, there are lots of popular Christian titles. They even have a Christian bookstore in some of the malls, which reminds me of growing up in the Bible Belt in the 1990's. We had an amazing placed called Mardel in Tulsa. It had everything, from communion plates to books to cross jewelry. Maybe I was too young or naive but I feel like Christian literature was more pure back in those days. These days I question some of the books publishers put out under this genre, they seem to be pushing boundaries. I totally agree how nice it would be to have a brick and mortar experience that shows the beauty of God's Word and how it is encompassed in His people's imagination through a good selection of titles on the shelves. I've told my husband I would love to start a Christian Library, because even my local library lacks any substantive Christian works. There's a lot of potential in this area and I am excited to see how it is fostered over the next decade!
We love the independent bookstore in the small town we, up till recently, lived walking distance from. It is a huge pillar in the community–storytimes for kids, book clubs, knitting clubs, author events with self-published or big-time authors–really an exemplary model. My main qualm is that among the books and the kitshy gifts near the entrance there are so many "witchy" products lately, which unfortunately seems to be inextricably linked to "bookish women" in popular culture nowadays. I usually just ignore when shops sell those sorts of things but finding books about modern witchcraft on the religious studies shelf next to the Bible and classic works about Norse Mythology...gives me the "ick" as the kids say. (They also sell quite a few books oriented toward children that I consider inappropriate, but at this stage my son can't read so I don't mind bringing him to places where those books are sold). The Christian bookstore in the same town really only sells overtly religious books and those Amish Romance novels that have a huge following.
Fascinating--and impressive that you have both an independent bookstore AND a Christian bookstore in town. Good testimony about how much you all read!
It sounds like your independent bookstore is, in effect, doing a lot of the things that I've generally associated with the public library (storytimes, book clubs).
Loved this article, you know there is a but coming. For those of us who are on a fixed income and do not drive anymore, Amazon has been a life saver. I can go on Amazon and get a sample of a book or and audio book and if I like it, I first try the local library and I am blessed to live in the Grand Rapids,MI area where there are 4 colleges or universities that I can also use. When money permits I do purchase that treasured book. Growing up my grandmother was an English teacher and I always got books for Christmas. In the summer when I would visit her, I had my very own library card. My dad was very smart and had books all over the house and was always reading. The bookshelf that on the back of the bed was full of Readers Digest Condensed books, I devoured them . They were a bit more than the samples that Amazon will provide. I guess it was the early version, enough to wet your appetite.
I live in a one bedroom apartment and do not have room for all the books and audio books on my Kindle , ( yes I was , one of those kids that hid a book inside my textbook, but only after my class work was done.) A couple of days a week, I would use my lunch money to buy books from the Scholastic’s Book form. Those were special days.
Okay, I admit I am a bookworm and I know I can not nor am I willing to quit at anytime. Looking forward to the next article at libraries. Whenever I have moved as an adult, and I have moved so many times, the first thing I do even before getting my driver’s license, I get my library card!
In our area the best bookstore is the largest independent bookstore in west Michigan and is called, Schiller Bookstore and Cafe.
A life in/with books is the good life--what a beautiful story this is! We did the same thing when we moved to Ohio: got our library card before anything else :-)
I got to visit Grand Rapids a year and a half ago, when I was recording the lectures to go with the Cultural Christians book, and my wonderful editor at Zondervan took me over to Baker Book House. She told me a really funny story about previously taking the famous theologian N. T. Wright there: he found one of his books in the used section of the store, so he took this used book off the shelf, wrote a short message in there for the reader and signed it, and shelved it back. What a nice surprise it must have been for whoever ended up buying it!
So cool. I know how special it is to be here where there great publishing companies. All those sources I used to sight in my papers, I now am here among them. Those address are very real places for me. I even had the opportunity to work downstairs at the corporate offices of Family Christian Stores with Zondervan Publishing upstairs. I do hope you make it back here again. Baker Book House has authors here all the time as does Schullers Bookstore. Maybe you could be a part of the Faith and Writing Festival that is held every two years at Calvin University and the January Series also at Calvin University.7
I've not been to the Barnes and Noble in Mansfield. I like the one at the Arlington Parks Mall. I also like the Half Price Bookstore on South Cooper Street in Arlington and Pantego Books. Pantego Books is a small store but packed with books, and book lover treats like stickers and socks and bookmarks. Half Price Books has a nice selection of journals, children's books, cookbooks, fiction, and vinyl records. I love Pantego Books best because it is a small family business. They are knowledgeable about books. They have author book signings. They have book group meetings.
I miss Lifeway Christian Bookstores, especially at Christmas time when the store looked festive, and they had a wonderful card selection.
A local bookstore opened in 2022 in our relatively small town. It's called Neighborly Books and my kids and I love visiting it. The atmosphere is lovely - it is in a historic building in our downtown area so the structure is visually appealing, and the owner usually plays big band/Sinatra music in the background. I love that there is a local place to shop for books.
I love this! And fascinating to see such a bookstore open post pandemic.
Oh and this too:
'You can’t quite describe the sensation of having four walls of books all around you, and yet you know that you feel different when there, better somehow, more relaxed.'
— Yes! So familiar with this feeling!
Your book shop description at the end felt like you were reading my diary — you described the book shop I would love to own one day. Even down to poetry readings, history books, and the classics 😀 A good book shop can and should be a haven...
I really enjoyed this post! I have lived in many different places, from Uzbekistan to South Africa, and have visited bookstores around the globe. I'm a total sucker for a good used bookstore as well. Shortly after stores started reopening after the COVID lockdown, I was living in the D.C. Metro area at the time, and remember going into my local bookstore. I really wanted something uplifting and inspiring. I was very saddened to see they had no Christian books in their store. Not a single one. Everything was magic, zombies, true crime, etc. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything and I didn't return. There used to be a huge Lifeway store about 20 minutes from my house but it closed down. Germany was a reading culture and I remember loving how several people would be reading and not staring at their phones while traveling on the train/metro. In South Africa, there are lots of bookstores. In one little beach town, I passed by nearly five different ones within a three block walk. In these stores, and on the street markets, there are lots of popular Christian titles. They even have a Christian bookstore in some of the malls, which reminds me of growing up in the Bible Belt in the 1990's. We had an amazing placed called Mardel in Tulsa. It had everything, from communion plates to books to cross jewelry. Maybe I was too young or naive but I feel like Christian literature was more pure back in those days. These days I question some of the books publishers put out under this genre, they seem to be pushing boundaries. I totally agree how nice it would be to have a brick and mortar experience that shows the beauty of God's Word and how it is encompassed in His people's imagination through a good selection of titles on the shelves. I've told my husband I would love to start a Christian Library, because even my local library lacks any substantive Christian works. There's a lot of potential in this area and I am excited to see how it is fostered over the next decade!
We love the independent bookstore in the small town we, up till recently, lived walking distance from. It is a huge pillar in the community–storytimes for kids, book clubs, knitting clubs, author events with self-published or big-time authors–really an exemplary model. My main qualm is that among the books and the kitshy gifts near the entrance there are so many "witchy" products lately, which unfortunately seems to be inextricably linked to "bookish women" in popular culture nowadays. I usually just ignore when shops sell those sorts of things but finding books about modern witchcraft on the religious studies shelf next to the Bible and classic works about Norse Mythology...gives me the "ick" as the kids say. (They also sell quite a few books oriented toward children that I consider inappropriate, but at this stage my son can't read so I don't mind bringing him to places where those books are sold). The Christian bookstore in the same town really only sells overtly religious books and those Amish Romance novels that have a huge following.
Fascinating--and impressive that you have both an independent bookstore AND a Christian bookstore in town. Good testimony about how much you all read!
It sounds like your independent bookstore is, in effect, doing a lot of the things that I've generally associated with the public library (storytimes, book clubs).